December 04, 2006

Ever seen a frog croak?

Today while kayaking the mouth of the Marianne River with a wonderful couple; Greta and Dave from Washington state, we heard a strange grunting sound. We investgated and saw splashing near the bank of the river, I got excited thinking it may be a river otter, which is extremely rare, but what I got was my third installment in timeless battle between predator and prey.

In 1998 I hiked around a corner not more than 100 yards from today's battle to see a Machete (a green and yellow snake) hunting a tree frog, both are disturbed by my appearence and the snake uses the moment to strike the frog dead in the face and the frog croaks, litterally and figuratively as the snake dragged its prey into the bush to dine. A couple years later I am mountain biking in Chaguaramas to hear this strange call on the side of Tucker Valley road and I see these exact two characters in their deadly struggle. This time as I investigate the snake drops its prey frightened by my appearence, I am kind of scary looking ;-)

This time the snake has obviously caught the frog while it was in the river near the bank. Prey calls repeatedly in a death cry puffing itself up to make it too large to eat as predator drags it into branches. The predator's grip is strong, in the photo you can see its teeth sunk into the frog's skin but the frog will not give up. I enter the frey for a desire of modern man; to get the photo. The predator hesitates for a moment and the frog cheats death in a splash, the snake beats a digusted retreat. Snake 1 - Frog 2.

Why I have been priviledged to see the epic battle three times I have no clue. I am both elated that I got the shot but disgsted that I interfered. I would love to see this truggle continue.